Anyone else find it curious that Cllr Sara Bashford, who gave her assurances that residents would be kept informed of developments on libraries, omitted to mention this position being advertised back in December?
That's the same Cllr Bashford who assured residents their views would be listened to, yet disregarded the data from parts of the the council consultation document on six libraries as the document was confusing.
The same who took the decision to outsource all 13 libraries on the basis of this flawed consultation, involving just six libraries in any case.
The very same council who got caught out meeting with LSSI before the decision to explore outsourcing was taken.
That's also the council that have not been able to fully answer FOI requests for the breakdown of responses that Cllr Bashford claims informed the decision to outsource.
The same that assured residents no libraries would close, though since then jointly run Upper Norwood is under threat and then the closure of New Addington was announced. But surely there would be reassurances about how Croydon might provide a service to this area. Apparently not. According to the newspaper article Cllr Bashford rubber-stamped the death of New Addington Library without any regard for the space that might be available in the CALAT Centre nor could she give any reassurances about the bookstock that might be accommodated.
Gavin Barwell MP won't be drawn on the situation, still claiming no library will close.
That's also the council who have been caught out for not advertising National Libraries Day but then again why would this be any different? Whilst other authorities celebrate libraries and promote the activities they offer Croydon have for some time now been erratic in publicising events, some receiving no publicity at all!
And let's not forget the great book cull, still continuing to be noted by residents across the borough, which Croydon also failed to mention to residents. Seems less is more. So Croydon!
The same who kept silent about the shortlisted organisations.
Not a great track record for transparency, is it?
No comments:
Post a Comment